Appointed to the Senate of Canada in November 2016, the Honourable Yuen Pau Woo sits as an independent representing British Columbia. He has been the elected Facilitator of the Independent Senators Group since 2017.

Senator Woo has worked on public policy issues related to Canada’s relations with Asian countries for more than 30 years. From 2005-2014, he was President and CEO of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, where he continues to serve as Distinguished East Asia Fellow. He is also Senior Fellow at Simon Fraser University’s Graduate School of Business, and at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia. He is a member of the Trilateral Commission and of the board of the Vancouver Academy of Music. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of the Mosaic Institute, the Canadian Ditchley Foundation, and the York Centre for Asian Research.

Relations with China will be Canada’s biggest foreign policy challenge for the foreseeable future. For the past 50 years, Canadian policy towards China has been largely transactional, with “the China question” seen as a residual of other international policy priorities. This is evident in the decades-long debate around “diversification” of Canadian trade and investment away from dependence on the United States. China today is much more than a “diversification” issue. As an increasingly assertive global power, China’s presence is felt anywhere and everywhere — for better or worse. China has become a global neighbor that we need to get to know much better, and at varying times confront, cajole, or cooperate with. We need to rethink Canada-China relations in a way that respects Canadian values, recognizes China’s place in the world, protects our interests domestically and abroad, and enhances the independence of our international policy. In recent years, Canada-China relations have been unduly shaped by US-China strategic competition, resulting in Ottawa having conflicts with Beijing that have more to do with great power rivalry than with our national interest. Sleeping with one elephant is difficult enough; sleeping with two should keep us awake constantly.